contagio | ( MEMES ) TEST DRIVE >> 7

Entry tags:

:: meme

( MEMES ) TEST DRIVE >> 7

THE TEST DRIVE

Like it or not, you've been dragged from your world into the sanctum. It's a pretty nice city, all things considered--sci-fi, high-tech, glamourous.... Except, of course, for the giant dome encircling it, and the threat of glitching, contaminated zombies at your door. Looks like humanity's built itself a fortress that looks suspiciously like a cage, too. Toss in the odd memory blanks and the everpresent logo of Bifrons incorporated and it's enough to make someone paranoid.

The object of this meme is to get people familiar with the world of the Sanctum, and to try to see if their characters would fit in a sci-fi utopia such as this. Here are your options:

1. Intro: Waking Up. Make your intro post, folks. You wake up in a strange place, and get a strange transmission to go with it. There's a pair of glasses connected to some sort of communications network, but otherwise not much else in the room with you. What are you going to do?

2. Pet Adoption. Maybe you have the perfect genetically engineered pet in mind. Maybe you found a stray little escapee--do you keep it or turn it in? There's a reward if you let Bifrons know where the potentially dangerous little bugger is at, after all.

3. Alterations. Feel like you need an edge in the city? Find yourself injured and looking at options? Why not consider genetic alterations or, better yet, upgrading to a better, healthier you? Be warned, some of the side effects can be a little unpleasant.

4. Network Glitches. Strange garbled messages keep trying to come through in audio and text, but no way to track where they're coming from. Do you try to make contact? Compare notes with others? Surely it's nothing to be concerned about, right?

5. Dome Glitches. What was that in the window? There, again, in the bathroom mirror! Is that another you, living another life? Or maybe you spot an ominous shadow lurking around in the corner, something like a dysthrope but...worse. You're not going crazy, are you? Others see it, too, don't they? Oh, I wouldn't touch that reflective surface if I were you, or you might end up thinking you're living in that strange other world.

6. Outside the Dome. You're out and about without an armed escort, suited up against the atmosphere and dysthropes. It's supposed to be a green sector in this run down shell of what used to be a suburb, right? Nothing could possibly go wrong

7. WILDCARD. Choose your own adventure or create a cocktail from the presented options! The choice is YOURS.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You're still here, Jim?" Caine laughs, showing plenty of canine and patting him gently on the back in return. He'd definitely been trying to lose Kirk, just to impress him and really push the boots, but maybe he hadn't gone anywhere Kirk couldn't follow on purpose. He couldn't show off how useful the boots were if Kirk couldn't see him.

Caine pretends to think about Kirk's request, then playfully shoves the captain. "Not on your life. Took me weeks to get the credits for these. But I'll tell you what-- take the keys out of your bike. I'll give you a ride."

If they other had been dodging more between the rows of buildings, up and over, he could have easily been lost. Kirk knew the city pretty well, but his options were limited when it came to his hover bike in terms of ways to go. Up was not really one of them, and he was generally restricted to left and right.

He flashed the other an equally toothy grin. "Have to work harder than that to shake me."

There's a brief moment of hesitation, if only because there was exactly only person Kirk allowed to carry him about in Proles, and Caine was not that person. But, it meant he could get a ride on those boots... worth it. He moved the bike into a better position and took out the keys, sliding them into the inside pocket of his riding jacket before zipping it up.

"If you drop me..." he warned, coming back to Caine, preparing to piggyback.

"Don't let go, then," he teased, crouching down so Kirk could climb on. When he'd first met Kirk, it'd been blatantly obvious that Kirk had someone he was either mated to or close with on a fairly regular basis. It was a very foreign smell, and it had Caine wondering just what kind of person gave off such a scent. Kirk was wild and carefree, like Caine tried to be when he was working off some stress, and he admired that. It isn't something he'd have for himself, probably, but that was alright. He could get a bit of it when he had to.

"Alright, ready?" he asked, hoisting Kirk up onto his back and supporting the other's legs with his arms. "If you thought I was good using my arms for balance, just wait--"

Caine takes off, easily, as though he wasn't carrying another adult male. This time, he's taking to the open dome. No streets, he's running on thin air and gliding in large, slow arcs.

Mated was a strong word. Far to strong. He would violently protested had it been used. As for the care free bit - well, he wasn't a believer in letting things get you down. He'd had his moments, sure, but his own personal methods of dealing with them seemed to mean he bounced back fairly quick. If he pulled others along in his cheerful wake, well, he couldn't say he was sorry for it. Caine always seemed like he could use some cheering up, and he was glad to see that the boots were giving him such a boost.

The Star Fleet captain wrapped his arms around Caine's shoulders, his legs grasping his hips. Precarious and a bit uncomfortable, but he reminded himself of why he was doing this and the discomfort faded, nothing more than a passing notion.

"Whooo!" Kirk called, his head twisting as he looked around himself, seeing the dome laid out below, nothing between him and the street but air. He should be terrified, but his heart hammered with excitement, eyes dilating with adrenaline. "And you did this all the time back in your world?" he asked Caine, gripping a bit tighter - for safety's sake, of course.

For Caine there was 'mated' for splices, and 'love' or 'dating' for humans. He had no idea who Kirk was sleeping with, but he kept his assumptions to himself and would wait to be proven wrong. In the meantime, there's flying to be done. All of that wasn't really vital to know.

Egged on by Kirk's obvious enjoyment of the situation, Caine leans forward and makes a sharp corkscrew just to make Kirk's head spin.

"...Not all the time," Cain said after a moment's hesitation. Obviously he hadn't when he was imprisoned. "But they were my signature when I was a legionnaire! Most legionnaires didn't like to get too close, but I thought it was the most effective way to handle some situations."

He saw starts for a second, but fear didn't touch him as they spun and glided. He almost wished he could shrug off his jacket and let his wings out behind him. He could feel like he was really flying. His heart raced in his chest, resisting the urge to reach out with his fingers and try and brush the sky. He was sure Caine could feel the thrumming, smell his excitement or something. Excitement had a scent, didn't it? Maybe he'd ask Caine when they were dirt side again.

"Hey, I'd get as close as I had to to be able to use these!" Kirk called, sure the other could hear him, his fingers gripping tight to the other's shirt even as he lifted his head to let the breeze of their passage kiss his cheeks. He tapped Caine's chest, teeth flashing in a new, wider grin. "I know you have more tricks than this!"

Kirk's excitement did have a scent, and it was one that Caine rarely smelled and didn't feel some apprehension towards. Usually excitement didn't involve him in a good way, usually it came in situations like watching Titus smile as he put Caine out the airlock. This was actually contagious, and Caine felt himself grinning along with Kirk.

"If you're sure-- hang on!" Caine cuts the algorithm and they both fall towards the street. Before it can get too nerve-wracking though, Caine starts the boots again and they slope gently alongside the normal street traffic. He weaves through the cars before spotting a hole in the foot traffic and racing them up the side of a building. All the way to the top, then Caine turns them over in midair.

He did his best to lean with the motions of Caine's body like he would the movement of his bike, flowing with him. His eyes watered as they dove and rose, his stomach bubbling as a natural part of him worried for the way the ground was rising up. But he had faith in Caine, releasing one hand to hold it up like he was on a roller coaster ride. He tosses winks and waves at the people in their cars, letting out a little bark of surprise when they begin climbing the side of the building. You saw this type of thing in movies, but you never quite imagined doing it yourself.

He clutched tighter when the other did the roll, but the cheer he let out was the brightest and loudest yet, eyes wide as he saw the city upside down for the barest breath. A view not many had ever seen, he was sure.

"This is amazing!"

Caine did have a fleeting worry that Kirk was going to fall off of his back from all the showing off he was doing, but if he'd kept Jupiter alive in Chicago, any accident would be easy to handle. Nobody was shooting at them, after all. He chuckles and shakes his head slightly as Kirk plays around with the people they're passing, and grins when Kirk yells at the view.

He spots one of the network towers and alights on it for a moment. "I'm surprised your people haven't developed anything like these yet," Caine indicates the boots as he lets Kirk down for a moment. He's still a little nervous running them so hard without a break-- they aren't the ones he's used to.

Reluctantly Kirk slides off Caine's back, though his legs shook a bit from the effort of having clung so hard. He didn't stumble though, which he was fairly proud of. Instead he made his way to the edge of the room and sat down, tossing his legs over the side to dangle. He wished he could say there was a breeze to ruffle his hair, but in the dome there really wasn't, at least not a natural one.

"I guess no one's seen money in them yet," he shrugged. They had anti-grav for bikes and cars, transporters, warp engines. It was a mystery that the boots hadn't come up before. "Or maybe someone has, and they realized they really didn't need people flying around with them due to health and safety reasons. And lawsuits."

Caine powers the boots down and walks over to Kirk, taking a seat next to him with the boots dangling over the edge. The idea that the technology hadn't been seen as profitable does resonate with him and he accepts that readily. He doesn't necessarily agree with it, but different planets had different takes on what was 'valuable'.

"I suppose if there was an... accident of some kind, the person who made the product would be held accountable. Truth be told, these were only issued to Legionnaires fighting on the front lines. There are other methods of transportation that look a little more dignified where I come from."

"Yeah. I could see them being good for sports, maybe, or even people in the delivery business. But we have the sky lanes, and as fast as you can go on those... yeah, accident waiting to happen," he shook his head. "Bet anything someone has it on a drawing board somewhere, but their lawyer friend shows them the long list of potential lawsuits and it stays on the drawing board." Sad fact, but that was how things went. He could understand the boots in a military capacity, even an exploratory one.

He looked up at him and he grinned. "They might be more dignified, but they aren't nearly as fun."

"Mm, you're probably on to something there," Caine flashed a wry smile. Of course, if a splice was killed in a freak boot accident, nobody would be clambering to file the necessary paperwork for a fine. What was one splice in the long run?

"I don't know if any of the Entitleds I know have ever had something that approaches 'fun'. Maybe there's a correlation there."

"Whatever they think is fun, it probably isn't," he shook his head. Kirk lived a comfortable life now, though it hadn't always been that way. "I've been around some of those types before and they're boring." He sighed and rolled his eyes, leaning back on his hands, gaze wandering over the city.

"I'd much rather hang out with you and get a ride on the hover boots," he hummed.

"...you have?" Caine furrows his brows and frowns. Kirk didn't seem the type to be around anyone who behaved like an Entitled, and he was getting the general gist that in most people's Verses, no one owned planets.

He absorbs this and smiles faintly. "It's not saying much, but I would rather hang out with you than an Entitled too."

"Well, back on Earth. Sometimes you could run into them in some of the clubs I went to," he shrugged. He liked to party, especially in his Academy years, and he had not been above batting his eyes to get into some of the higher glitz clubs when he could.

This time he snorted, turning his head to look at Caine, his cheek resting on his shoulder. "Well, I kind of hope so, otherwise I'm going to have a very long walk down this building."

"Oh..." Well, that made sense. Humans were known for not sharing, for selecting certain people to be more valuable than others. It probably didn't stop outside of his Verse. Maybe the thing he's trying to wrap his head around is the mingling of the lowly with the Entitled. Apparently Kirk could do it-- most splices who weren't in government or service never even saw an Entitled.

Caine smiles and claps Kirk on the shoulder. "You'd have a long fall, you mean."

Edited 2015-03-08 09:31 (UTC)

Well, Kirk wasn't a splice, but alien species mixed in his Verse. Ever since First Contact. And it had always been that way for humans - a sort of divide, but people clawing their way up, or in Kirk's case sneaking in, or somethings people coming down. A mobile society.

He mock wobbled like he was about to fall. "Don't make it actually happen! I can't really fly with these things you know!"

'Mobile society' was a foreign word, if not a taboo word for Caine's world. But that isn't on his mind. When Kirk fakes falling, Caine actually reaches out and takes Kirk's far shoulder, creating a kind of barrier with his arm so Kirk couldn't fall without Caine catching him.

"Believe me, I didn't think you could," Caine sighs and backs off once Kirk is steady. "They look pretty puny."

"I did once. It was kind of cool," he smirked, pushing off Caine's arm, patting it in gentle reassurance. "I don't know if I could deal with them being huge though. They're kind of a pain as it is when it comes to my clothes. I have to cut holes in everything." Seriously, nothing came with pre-cut holes like they had in Luceti. It was quite frustrating.

"They'd be more useful, I'll tell you that," Caine folds his hands and looks up at the dome's ceiling, pondering the stars. "I used to have them. Fifteen foot wingspan, I could hit the stratosphere of most planets in under a minute if I had to."

He looks at Kirk's back and ponders. "Have you asked around the network? Maybe there's someone who'd be willing to help with that."

A whistle escaped him, both from jealousy and being impressed. He tried to imagine them on Caine, almost did. It would be a hell of a sight, that was for sure. He couldn't imagine going that fast under your own power, couldn't imagine the way it felt to pump your wings, strain them, touch the sky. Yeah, he was a little jealous.

"I could, but I don't think it's a good idea to mess with them," he shook his head. "They're... I didn't exactly come by them normally, remember?"

Caine frowns slightly, looks back at Kirk. "I meant with your clothes," he chuckles. "I wouldn't go trying to find a doctor over the network. You're liable to wake up staring at seventeen clones of yourself."

Oh. Well, that made much more sense didn't it. He had the good grace to laugh at his own mistake, rubbing the back of his neck.

"A part of me wants to say nothing can possibly go wrong with seventeen clones of me, but after having met someone with my own face, I have to say I don't want to share it with more people." Frank was a good friend, but it was still hard some days realizing your face wasn't as unique as you thought it was in the universe.

"How did you find clothes to fit your wings? It must have taken some kind of gymnastics to get your shirt on every day with them."

"You mean with FDR," Caine had noticed the resemblance, then had to line up pictures of them side by side before he realized Kirk was most likely FDR's Recurrence. It made sense, to a degree, though Caine had wondered how the universe hadn't collapsed yet from the existence of, essentially, the same person in the same place at the same time. Whatever Bifrons was doing, it involved intense science that Caine isn't sure he could understand.

"No, it's easy. I put on the shirt, then the wings. Takes a minute for the biometric feedback to kick in, but I can be up and flying in two minutes if I have to be."

( MEMES ) TEST DRIVE >> 7

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)